Creating a Logo Using Glassy Transparent Text in Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is great for making Logo’s and there are many things that people don’t know about Illustrator even though its such a powerful software. This image below was made using Adobe Illustrator CS.

First thing you do is open a new file and Write down whatever text you want I wrote ‘CreativeArt’ using the font : FranklinGotTDemCon

Now you basically copy and paste the same text in front by pressing CTRL+C and then CTRL+F. Apply the color : #027ABB. After doing so use the arrow keys on your keyboard to press the front and up arrows once only so you can see some of the black background text.

Now we need to divide this text so we can apply the effects we want to make it look glassy transparent, so first you need to select the whole text, and this is VERY IMPORTANT because you wont be able to divide the text otherwise, select both the texts and right click and select ‘Create outlines’ from the menu. Basically to divide the text we use the pathfinder(Shift+F9), but before that we have to define which how we want to divide the text so that Illustrator can understand. So take the pen tool and draw an arc over the text where you want to divide it and add another color, effect or texture.

Now since Illustrator will never properly Divide over an open path we have to make sure that all paths are closed hence you close the path on top of the text and remove the outline and add the same color as before : #027ABB

After doing this press Shift+F9 to open the ‘Pathfinder’ window. Now select both the text and the shape on top of it and then press Divide on the pathfinder window:

Now when you click your text it selects everything as a group, because it has been grouped together after being divided. To ungroup right click while having your object selected and press ungroup on the menu. Once ungrouped you can select all the divided parts of the object and remove(just select the extra pieces one by one and press delete, don’t delete the really small pieces that used to be black and are now blue we will use them as a border later) the unnecessary parts to get this:

Simply select each of the lower divided text areas(don’t end up selecting every little piece just select the center piece in the text and change its color to : #8ADBFF)

Now, comes the good part. You simply go to your gradient window. The colors light blue on the left side: #8ADBFF and the darker blue on the right side: #00A0C6, The type of gradient is ‘Radial’, apply this setting to the same lower divided text areas:

When done, click ‘Transparency’ right next to gradient and apply the set the layer from ‘Normal’ to ‘Screen’ :

Our work is not done yet but your text should look like this now:

To make the bubbles, to go along with the glass transparent text, simply make a circle using the Ellipse tool and pressing CTRL to make an equal circle. Now choose the following color to fill the bubble with : #A3C380, use a lighter shade of this color for the left or use white, works fine both ways. After that go to the gradient settings and set the following settings:

Once you have made the bubble go to Window > Symbols Drag the bubble to the Symbols palette and you’ll see it gets added as a symbol. Now to set the bubbles I used the ‘Symbol sprayer tool’ while having my newly added symbol selected with the following settings:

You can either use these settings and the spraying tool or you can manually just copy the bubble six or seven times and set them as it suits you, then select them all and right click go to the ‘Arrange’ menu and select ‘send to back’. And there you have it, Glassy Transparent text with bubbles:

However, if you want your whole text to be transparent here’s what you do: Select all the other Alphabets that you have divided on the upper side and set these gradient settings: (color values: right: #00A0C6 left: #027ABB)